Mi Culpa
by Illisandria Carthain
Summary: He flew too close to the sun and his wings melted and he crashed back to the Earth...Prof.Membrane POV. Oneshot


I stood at the door to his room, to their room. "Son?" I poke my head 'round the corner slowly, hoping that he'll know it's really me this time.'

"Dad?! DAD!" I sigh, for a change he DOES know it's me, "Dad! I can't believe you're here - you have to tell them! Tell them I'm not crazy! Please…"

I say nothing for a bit, catching his eyes as I scan him over quietly. He hadn't been eating lately, I can tell. Also his eyes are looking even more sunken as he's not sleeping either. "What do you mean?" I fake the superiority in my tone, choking back all the tears that threaten to pool into my goggles.

"What-?" His face fell and, for a moment, I can see clarity in his little head, then it disappears, "He's right there!!!! RIGHT THERE and no one believes me!!!" He thrashed wildly against the straightjacket they have him in, knocking his head against one of the few unpadded corners of his room.

"QUIET!!! Zim is trying to think of a BRILLIANT way to rid himself of these pathetic human bonds and then rid himself of the Dib!" The boy next to him howled, looking angrily around at something, muttering to himself.

I hung my head as Dib continued to assault me with his screams, ranting about how 'I'm blind' and 'he's right there' and 'Irken Invader'. It's all my fault…I decided I was going to play God, I decided I was going to create life in my image and it worked. Then I decided I would play God again and modified his DNA and brain to make him smarter and stronger. This made him into what he was today - a raving lunatic…

"Professor Membrane sir?" One of the doctors here called my name and I turned around.

"Yes?"

"He-he isn't getting better sir…"

"I know."

"But- he's been here since he blew up the School and that was FIVE MONTHS ago! And his friend Louis's been here since he tried to dissect one of his classmates! They're both INSANE and yet you continue to visit them?"

"Let me ask you something…" my voice was calm and low, dangerously low. "If you made a mistake and it caused harm to other people wouldn't YOU try and fix the damage?" He paused and nodded slowly, "Then get out." He scurried off and I turned back to face them again. Dib and Louis had been friends for a very long time when they had thought up this game when they were eleven. They called it: Invader Zim. Simply put, one of them was the alien, the Irken Invader named Zim and the other was the 'hero', the misunderstood paranormalist that always beat Zim's schemes to take over the world. At first it was cute to watch little Louis and Dib run around screaming things like "I am Ziiiim!" and "Stop you alien scum!" but then it grew to be disturbing.

They took their roles more and more seriously every day, Louis now almost always Zim and Dib was the paranormalist. Some days Dib would come home covered in scrapes and bruises I'd find out that he and 'Zim' had gotten in a fight and he'd won. More than once one of them was sent to the hospital and more than once did Louis's mother place a restraining order on Dib and me on her Louis. But there was nothing we could do. The doctors said that the illness they were affected with was unnamed as of yet and seemed to be a form of progressive psychosis. Soon my little Dib and Louis disappeared and all that was left was Dib the paranormalist and Zim.

I stared quietly at them for a few more seconds, watching Louis's hair flop in front of his face as he babbled to his 'robot'. Then I watched Dib sulk and throw angry glares at me, muttering about 'blind, ignorant humans' and how 'they were all begging to be destroyed'. One day they would get out of here and God only knows the things they'll do to the 'ignorant humans'. I had to make sure they could never do that, I had to make sure that my mistake didn't hurt anyone else. I stood up and nodded to the guard who activated the laser force-field and security systems. As I walked away I heard him howl in utter fury.

"YOU FILTHY MONSTER!!! YOU MAY LOOK LIKE MY DAD BUT YOU AREN'T HIM! HE'D NEVER LEAVE ME TO DIE IN HERE! MY DAD WOULD COME AND GET ME OUT! AND WHEN I GET OUT, YOU'LL BE THE FIRST ONE I COME AFTER!!!!" I shook my head softly and pulled my goggles down, finally letting the tears flow down my face.

"I'm sorry Dib…I'm so sorry…"

(A/N: I looked back at this and read the Zim wiki and wondered what It'd be like if I subbed Louis, the kid who was supposed to replace Dib, for the Johnny C. I portrayed in Mi Culpa. So...here it is. R&R if you would. 'Sandria)


End file.
